Barbara Brend

ISLAMIC ART

This highly illustrated history of Islamic art surveys the magnificent
achievement of Muslim artists and craftsmen over 1200 years, from the 7th to the
19th centuries AD. Architecture, manuscripts, ceramics and glass, metalwork,
textiles and carpets, with their distinctive subtlety of outline and sumptuous
decoration, formed the basis of a cultural heritage of extraordinary richness.
And yet under different local conditions - in Arabia or Turkey, Central Asia or
Spain, North Africa, show more India or Iran - and in the hands of Arabs, Seljuks, Mamluks,
Mongols, Timurid and Ottoman Turks, Safavids or Mughals, this shared heritage
produced a great diversity of styles, which Barbara Brend examines region by
region. She also considers the specific character of Islamic art and its influence in
the West, as well as looking at modern developments. The book contains a useful
glossary of Arabic, Turkish and Persian terms.

Dr Barbara Brend is a specialist in Islamic art and archacology, with a particular
interest in manuscript painting. She is a regular lecturer for the British Museum
and the British Library

With 105 colour and 6o black and white illustrations show less